Don’t fret if you missed the great organic food bargains I blogged about at Target this weekend. There are always more organic food savings to be found – like this $5 off coupon deal at Whole Foods. But act quickly today, or you will miss the opportunity to use the Whole Foods $5 off coupon.

This is an e-coupon worth $5 off a purchase of $25 or more. I’ve not seen a coupon like this from Whole Foods previously. Hopefully it’s the start of a regular coupon promotion. Apparently the redemption rate has been quite high – at least at my local Whole Foods!

Tip: You’ll save even more if you remember to set your printer to “black and white only” before printing!

Big Boy asks to go to Target so often that now 23-month-old Baby Boo is saying, “Wanna go Target!” I’m a goner. In addition to all this pressure on the home front, I was working hard this week on the launch of my client Mom Made Food’s kid’s organic line at SuperTargets nationwide.

So of course we ended up there yesterday, and I’ve got some great savings to share from Target’s in-house organic brand, Archer Farms. Target is running a nationwide sale through today (Saturday) on all Archer Farms products – 15% off a line that is already value priced.

I’ve posted here before about how the half gallons of Archer Farms organic milk are the Holy Grail for cheap organic milk by the half gallon. Can you believe they’re on sale for $2.92 per half gallon? And if you drink soymilk, you’re really in luck. You can nab a half gallon of Archer Farms organic soymilk for just $2.28. I usually refuse Big Boy’s pleas for chocolate milk, but at that price, I got him some as a special treat.

Now some folks dispute the notion that you need to buy organic for packaged or processed foods. Sure, we should all eat lots of fresh, whole foods, but sometimes it just makes sense to take advantage of the convenience of processed or packaged foods. And in those situations, whenever I can, I opt for products with the USDA organic seal, because it means that my children will be eating foods with no transfats, no artificial colors, no artifical preservatives, and no Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Many parents don’t realize that nearly all of today’s conventional packaged foods contain GMOs, and that GMOs have been banned in places like Europe and Japan. What’s more, in the United States, companies are not required to disclose the existence of GMOs in their products.

That’s why I stocked up on Archer Farms organic flaxseed and homestyle waffles– on sale for $1.86 per package and Archer Farms organic crackers (seasalt, multigrain, rye and flax, multiseed, and Italian herb) on sale for $2.11 per package.

I tend to stay away from over sugared items – in my book, organic cane juice is just sugar, thank you very much. But for those of you with kids whose teeth can withstand “fruit leather” or roll-ups, you might want to check out the Archer Farms organic fruit strips at $2.99 per 10 count box of organic raspberry, organic strawberry, organic apricot, organic pomengranate, organic wildberry, and organic tropical fruit.

And before you go? Print out these coupons for $1 off Archer Farms juice and cookies. The coupons don’t specify if they apply to the organic varieties, but it’s worth trying. And if you arrive and the shelves are bare? Remember you can get rain checks on all advertised sale items.

Happy Shopping! Did you find these tips helpful? Do you have any shopping tips to share? Please leave a comment!

People who know me “in the real world” know I’m not shy. You can still tell that I was the girl voted “most talkative” in my high school class! Yet when it comes to the blogosphere, I haven’t always been my normal gregarious self. I’ve been ribbed about not having a picture up on Twitter, and for trying to pass myself off as Catherine Zeta Jones here on OrganicMania.

There’s something special about connecting with other like-minded souls though the power of our words. When I read blogs, I think about the blogger’s sentiments. I don’t look at someone who may or may not share my race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or age.

Yet as I prepared for BlogHER DC and my first face-to-face meeting with some of my Green Mom’s Carnival friends, I reverted to the old stereotype that I poked fun of in this post, BlogHERs Worrying About What to Wear. Of course, I had more to worry about than just meeting a bunch of cybersisters for the first time – I was also self-conscious about appearing on camera for noted documentary film maker Min Sook Lee’s upcoming film.

I couldn’t avoid the camera this time. This was something different – something worth doing. Min Sook is trying to raise awareness of the toxic products marketed to the most innocent among us – our babies.

So I put aside my fears and put on my lead-free lipstick and marched out to the conference. We enjoyed BlogHER and met up for dinner afterwards, joined by C. Levine of FoodieTots.

It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in my journey as a mother. These women are so bright, and so committed to making a difference and to empowering other women to make the right decisions for the health of their children.

And as I looked around the BlogHER conference room at all the women I didn’t know, I smiled at a few of the BlogHERs. As I looked at their faces, I wondered about what was going on inside their heads. What words of wisdom would pour out of their blogs the next day as they reflected on BlogHER?

In some sense, I wish I hadn’t been so preoccupied with Min and the cameras – I missed much of the conference as Min filmed The Smart Mama testing Big Boy’s toys for lead. (Be sure to read Jess’s great post about what turned up in the lead testing). But next year, there will be another BlogHER. The opportunity to be a part of Min’s film and to connect with these very special “Green Moms” was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Just one more example of how blogging truly has changed my life.

For the past year, I’ve been blogging about how to save money while sticking to an organic diet and green household purchases. With the economy now in a tailspin and more people feeling financially stressed than at any time in recent memory, advice on how to save money while going green is more critical than ever before.

While I’ve shared my savings tips, I never before shared my reasons for such impassioned devotion to finding green and organic savings. The fact is, our household income fell dramatically around the time I started my own business and we added a second child to our family. I knew that with a baby at home, the last thing I wanted to do was to revert to cheap, toxic cleaners or cheap, pesticide laden produce or GMO processed foods just to save money. But we had to trim our bills as I worked to build income from my consulting business. That’s when I started scouring Whole Foods, Safeway, Giant, My Organic Market, and other natural foods stores for good deals. I want to encourage you to check out the following tips. They’re still very relevant:

And there are many more green and organic savings tips here on OrganicMania…but my family is calling me to start the day, so I’ve got to run! But you can find many, many more savings tips simply by using the search bar on OrganicMania to search on any topic you’d like or just check the savings tip archives.

The good news? I did manage to save money while increasing my share of organic and green purchases.

And the reason I haven’t been blogging about savings as much recently? My marketing consulting business has taken off to the point where I have much less time to spend scouring the local stores for deals! But I know this information is needed now more than ever, so I promise to get back in the stores and to keep sharing these green and organic savings tips with you.

Tomorrow be sure to head on over to Green Bean Dreams to read a compendium of some of the best green bloggers talking about how to fight holiday commercialism. Curious to know more about the Green Moms Carnival? Read on or get the full scoop at the Green Moms Carnival Home Page.

It all started when I wondered why Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop had a list of top green blogs that did not include Green Mom bloggers. After all, Moms not only control the household purse strings, but we’re largely responsible for raising the next generation and influencing their adoption of green, eco-friendly habits.

I put together a list of what I considered to be the top Green Mom blogs, using Technorati’s “Magic Middle” ranking as a guideline. Next, I proposed that Alltop launch a new category – Green Moms. Alltop accepted all of us and added us to green.alltop.com

Then I set about contacting the Moms. Some I knew well, but a few were new to me. We started an email list and had a great time emailing back and forth. Then Alana of GrayMatters mentioned that it would be a shame to lose contact, and that we should think of a joint project. That’s when I proposed the Green Moms Carnival…and we were off and running. Very soon we added what I dubbed “Mothers of the Earth” – some other fantastic green women bloggers who are not Moms. And as soon as we publicized the carnival, we received submissions from “fans of Moms” and “sons of Moms” so we included them too!

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I was motivated to start OrganicMania because I found that in order to make sense of my organic purchases, I had to do so much research, it was crazy! People suggested that I share my opinions and my research, and now here I am, blogging about it. read more...

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